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Gaming Control Board
Background * GAMING CONTROL BOARD -- Gambling Control Board (not exact) * Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board Links * http://www.pgcb.state.pa.us * All_bets_off_on_casino_info Media * Gaming board fighting 'meritless' appeals P-G, March 2007 * State gaming board seeking $34 million budget for 2007 from December 05, 2006, by Tom Barnes, Post-Gazette Harrisburg Bureau Details People of PA Gambling, 2006 (contacts) 5th Floor, Strawberry Square, Harrisburg 17101 FAX 346-8350 Receptionist 346-8300 CHAIRMAN Decker Thomas A 346-8300 Administrative Assistant to the Chairman, Schoen Roseann 610-943-1339 Board Members * Angeli Ray 346-8300 * Mary Colins Mary D Colins 346-8300 * Coy Jeffrey 346-8300 * Marshall Joseph W “Chip” III 346-8300 * McCabe Kenneth 346-8300 * Rivers Sanford 346-8300 * Administrative Assistant to Ms. Colins, Manning Daria 610/943-1340 * Administrative Assistant to Mr. Coy, Posavec Cheryl 346-8327 Executive Staff * Executive Director, Anne Neeb LaCour 346-8336 * Administrative Assistant, Wanich Lyndsey 346-8336 * Board Secretary, Resch Paul 214-4736 * Office of Communications * Director of Communications, Hays Nick 346-8321 * Administrative Assistant Cromwell Elizabeth 346-8321 Legislative Liaison Office * Legislative Liaison, DeFrank Steve 346-8222 * Stambaugh Dan 346-8222 * Legislative Assistant, Zerfuss Kathryn 214-8222 Office of Chief Counsel * Chief Counsel, Donaghue Frank 346-8300 * Deputy Chief Counsels, Sherman R. Douglas 346-8300 * Williams LaMonte J 346-8300 * Williamson Maureen 346-8300 * Director of Race Track Gaming, Tucker Melinda M 346-8300 * Director of Regulatory Review Sandusky Richard 346-8300 * Deputy Director of Regulatory Review, Afrogola Michelle 610/943-1342 Deputy Director of Licensing Horner Nanette L 346-8300 Senior Counsel Rodriguez-Cayro Nick 346-8300 Attorneys Doherty James 346-8300 Grad Joseph W 346-8300 Hayes Kevin 346-8300 McClain Lisa D 346-8300 Shiffer Don 346-8300 Paralegal Joyce Deborah C 346-8300 Special Assistant to the Chief Counsel Lubold Pamela 703-2818 Administrative Assistant Creed Kelly 346-8314 Bureau of Corporate Compliance and Internal Controls Director Frushone-Miskin Denyse 703-2562 Administrative Assistant Pfaff Debra 703-2562 Special Assistant to the Director Andrews Lydia 703-2977 Manager – Internal Controls/Compliance Bender Andrew 703-2972 Manager – Corporate Compliance Talerico James 703-2976 Bureau of Licensing Director Hensel Susan 214-4732 Administrative Assistant to the Director Kaylor Barbara 214-4732 Special Assistant to the Director Fegley April 346-8326 Administrative Assistant to Licensing Sarver Tracy 703-2820 Manager – Operator Licensing Unit Hannon Sean 214-8112 Administrative Assistant to Sean Hannon Bollinger Dorine 214-8112 Manager – Vendor Certification Division Kunkle William 346-2709 Administrative Assistant to William Kunkle Shearer Nikki 346-2709 Bureau of Administration Director Walsh Michael 346-8354 Special Assistant to the Director Gritman Kym 346-8354 Procurement Specialist Graham Amanda 346-8328 Conference/Travel Support Chambers Donna 346-8341 Office of Human Resources Director Chan Wendy 346-8338 Administrative Assistant Wilson Chelsea 346-8338 Human Resource Analyst Bott Joseph 346-8345 Human Resource Assistant Graham Kim 346-7174 Office of Information Technology Director Buck James 346-8330 Administrative Assistant Megonnel Sherry 346-8330 Information Technology Specialist Williams Benjamin 214-8229 Telecommunications Specialist Semarge George 346-8355 Bureau of Investigations and Enforcement Director Kwait David 346-8343 Administrative Assistant Yanoscak Angie 346-8343 Director of Investigations Sturgeon Tom 703-2568 Administrative Assistant Bruno Lori 703-2568 Training & Internal Affairs Officer Smeal Ron 703-2811 Background Investigations Manager Sharpe Greg 346-2706 Central Office Deputy Director Vacant 214-8217 Administrative Assistant Kathy Filbey 214-8217 Supervisor Mauro Paul 214-8217 Eastern Regional Office Deputy Director Greenbank Roger 610/757-1321 Administrative Assistant Davis Deborah 610/757-1321 Supervisors Green Dexter 610/757-1321 Sykes Donna 610/757-1321 Western Regional Office Deputy Director Rendin Philip 412/569-0067 Administrative Assistant Beebe Theresa 412/569-0067 Supervisors Brletic Thomas 412/569-0067 Wells William 412/569-0067 Office of Chief Enforcement Counsel Chief Enforcement Counsel Schwoyer Michael 703-2565 Administrative Assistant Reighter Kathy 703-2565 Attorneys Davenport Nan 346-8300 Diehl Thomas 346-8300 Bureau of Hearings & Appeals Director Edminston Michael 346-8325 Administrative Assistant Vacant 346-8300 Hearings Officers Miller Dale 346-8325 Simmons William 346-8325 Hearings Clerk Kane Marianne 346-8325 Bureau of Gaming Laboratory Operations Director Williamson Richard 703-2821 Administrative Assistant Siegfried Cynthia 703-2821 Manager – Slot machine Certification Cruz Michael 214-8231 Manager – Systems & Kiosks Dill Heather 346-7170 Manager – Statistical Review Purohit Nimish 346-7171 Bureau of Budgets and Financial Management Chief Financial Officer Vacant 346-8300 Manager of Board Budgets Rhen David 214-8116 News * The Times-Tribune - Gaming Board staffers rake in $100G a year bY MICHAEL RACE HARRISBURG BUREAU CHIEF, 08/10/2006 : If Fumo and company could not get the start-up costs and timing right when they wrote Act 71, how do we know that they got the final costs and benefits right? http://local.lancasteronline.com/4/24116 Slots board borrows trouble : by Helen Colwell Adams, Staff Writer, Sunday News, Jul 15, 2006 LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - '''State violates law by giving it money from Revenue Department.' A legislative advisory agency has concluded that the Rendell administration violated the state constitution by transferring $7.3 million from the Revenue Department to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. The Legislative Reference Bureau opinion, dated June 14, was requested in March by state Sen. Noah Wenger, R-36th District, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. The opinion was further confirmation of critics' contention that the gaming board, established in 2004 to license and oversee up to 61,000 slot machines in Pennsylvania, is struggling with its finances. According to the reference bureau, by moving money from one agency to another without legislative approval, the administration infringed on the General Assembly's constitutional power to allocate money. In a letter accompanying the opinion, Stephen MacNett, general counsel for the Senate Republican Caucus, also questioned whether state Treasurer Bob Casey Jr. failed to "bar the constitutional breach" before issuing the contested funds. A budget official in the Rendell administration and a deputy treasurer both defended the transfer, arguing the shift of funds was consistent with the intent of Act 71, the Gaming Act. That 2004 law earmarked $36.1 million for slots startup costs, divided among three agencies. Terry Kostoff, deputy treasurer for fiscal operations, suggested that varying views of the transfer are a matter of "different attorneys interpreting the law differently." MacNett, however, said the GOP caucus — which has already sued Gov. Ed Rendell over the Democrat's use of the line item veto — may consider other options to get a more definitive legal ruling on the transfer. In the meantime, MacNett said Thursday, "I am led to believe the gaming board didn't know today, at least earlier, where their money's coming from yet." "It's been controversial from the beginning," Wenger said of expanded gambling, "and there are still some unanswered questions." Two issues The dispute over the $7.3 million transfer raises at least two issues — the propriety of shifting the funds without legislative approval, and the financial status of the gaming board. Opponents of expanded gambling have been arguing recently that the board was living on "borrowed money," as Dianne Berlin, coordinator of CasinoFreePA, put it. A gaming board spokesman had said on July 7 that he didn't have any information on the board's finances. But according to the Legislative Reference Bureau's opinion, the board and Revenue Department signed an interagency agreement Dec. 22, 2005, "with the approval of the Governor's Office of the Budget," to transfer $7.3 million from Revenue's Act 71 appropriation to the gaming board. That would seem to indicate that the gaming board by then had spent its $7.5 million allocation from Act 71. The board has no other source of income until slots are up and running. The Sunday News filed a Right to Know request with the board last week for budgets and audits. As of Friday, the board had not yet responded. Act 71 says the gaming board is an agency covered by both the Right to Know Act, which governs open records, and the Sunshine Act on open meetings. Mary Soderberg, executive deputy secretary of the budget and chief financial officer of the commonwealth, had said on July 7 that the budget office was treating the $36.1 million in Act 71 as a single pot of money. But the law distributes that $36.1 million among three agencies: the gaming board, at $7.5 million; the state police, at $7.5 million; and the Revenue Department, at $21.1 million. Kostoff said the $21.1 million was for a central computer system. Wenger said Rendell did not include any funding for the gaming board in the draft budget he submitted earlier this year to the General Assembly. The board might need $23 million more to stay afloat, one legislative source said. Wenger said he raised questions about the board's funding during budget hearings in late February and early March, and requested the reference bureau opinion after that. "I'm not sure how they plan to finance that until revenue becomes available through the gaming board," Wenger said. "... With a considerable number of employees and other responsibilities, there are ongoing expenses." "More stench is added to that already permeating the commonwealth from Act 71 and the Pennsylvania Out-of-Control Board," Berlin, of Penryn, said of the controversy. "The sad part is that this pattern of blatant disregard for the constitution and the best interest of the citizens has become par for the course with just about everything connected with this seriously defective law." Balance of powers The other issue, which the Senate GOP caucus may press in coming weeks, is whether the $7.3 million transfer was valid. Under the constitution, the reference bureau wrote, the Legislature has sole power to allocate money. Article III, section 24, of the constitution says that "no money shall be paid out of the treasury, except on appropriations made by law and on warrant issued by the proper officers." The reference bureau cited case law to argue that transfers of appropriations without General Assembly action is prohibited. But Soderberg, the deputy budget secretary, said administration lawyers think "the transfer of funds between these appropriations is consistent with and conforms to the legislative intent of Act 71." "It has long been established law and policy in the commonwealth that the transfer of funds between agencies are lawful and appropriate without further legislation, provided that the funds are used for the purpose for which they were originally appropriated — in this case, the implementation of Act 71." Kostoff, the deputy treasurer, also argued that while the $36.1 million was divided, the law cited a common purpose for all the money, which was implementing the Gaming Act. He said he had not seen the reference bureau's opinion and so couldn't address its details. But he rejected MacNett's suggestion that the treasurer's office didn't flag the issue: "We looked at this to make an assessment whether or not it was a valid transfer of money." The reference bureau wrote, "Although a common purpose for the appropriations is stated, the separate appropriations to the board and the department are explicitly for the board and the department to fulfill their respective responsibilities under the Gaming Act." More transfers Still unresolved in the debate is how the gaming board will get money to operate until casinos are licensed. MacNett said he thinks Rendell will try to transfer any Revenue funds left from Act 71 — projected recently at $2 to $4 million — to the gaming board. "The administration's ignoring this legal opinion the reference bureau at this stage," he said. Language in a fiscal code bill passed earlier this summer continues the availability of remaining money from Act 71 through this fiscal year, he said. When that money runs out, MacNett expects the administration will "orchestrate through the budget office some kind of a loan from some other state fund." "I have to think," he added, "the same legal issues are going to exist on that as existed in the spring transfer." In a supplemental appropriations act passed in May, the Legislature specified that the Revenue Department's remaining Act 71 money — estimated then at $8.563 million, which was to expire on June 30 — "shall lapse." Rendell, however, has line-item-vetoed that provision, saying the language was "inappropriate for the General Appropriations Act." House and Senate legislative leaders already are litigating another case over Rendell's use of the line item veto, arguing in a lawsuit over abortion funding that the governor cannot strike language without also vetoing the money attached to the language. MacNett said Rendell's veto of lapsing the Act 71 money, which he termed "nonsense, legally and logically," involves a similar issue. "Should the administration lose in court," he said, "then it would seem his lapse language veto in House Bill 2380 would be likewise voided — the monies would be lapsed, and there would be no residue of Act 71 funds available for use by either the board or the department." GOP senators and legislative sources insist a proposed amendment to the slots law, which Sen. Vince Fumo, D-Philadelphia, attempted to push through just before the Legislature recessed for the summer, would have included a $50 million loan to the gaming board from the Motor License Fund. Under the constitution, though, any loans from the Motor License Fund would have to be repaid in eight months — a tight timetable for the gaming board, which has been mired in disputes over regulations and lawsuits. A $50 million fee for each casino license must be paid when licenses are issued, but the board isn't close to approving any yet. All the Act 71 money is considered a loan to be repaid to the general fund. MacNett said the Republican caucus may "start taking on the issue" within the next week or so, although the form of a challenge isn't certain yet, to get a more definite legal ruling. One possibility: "calling the treasurer to task" for not questioning the interagency agreement. "Where's the authority to do this?" MacNett asked. "Should this transfer be reversed?" "The plot thickens," Wenger said. category:organizations Gambling